Life is full of challenges. That’s the way it is. It makes it interesting and builds character. But we don’t like them, do we?

We mislabel them as “problems” because we’re taught culturally to seek pleasure and avoid pain at all costs. We’re spoon-fed images that life is about having the perfect house with the picket fence or vacationing on a pristine beach sipping piña coladas.

So when something occurs in life that makes us feel uncomfortable or isn’t easy or doesn’t fulfill those perfect airbrushed images we’re inundated with, we label these challenges as “bad” or “unwanted.” We overlay our drama on top of what is a natural part of life. Challenges are normal. Our misinterpretation of these challenges and labeling them negatively is not.

Your life’s challenges hold the seeds for all of your life’s victories and without them your life would be a dull, lifeless, horizontal line. All victories are born out of your challenges and they are essential in order for us to fulfill our potential.

And they help hasten us on our vertical journey.

We’re all evolving upwards. When we aspire to become our best selves and are inspired to create from that truth – these simple and yet profound actions are forces that create alchemy in our lives. It’s alchemical – it changes us – because challenges (when we meet and overcome them) forge new qualities within us. We discover new patience and compassion. We find new resolve, new reservoirs of strength. We make more choices out of love and not fear. We become less judgmental. We “lighten” up, have more fun. These qualities are aspects of a person evolving upwards on a vertical journey. It’s vertical because you evolve. This is simply not possible without overcoming the challenges that lead to new awareness. The challenges are what create the “ah ha’s.”

As you implement new ways to face your stuff, you’ll begin to witness a transformation in your life.

So try, if you can, to start enjoying your challenges a little more. Or at the very least, learn to become a little more neutral about them. They are the yin to your life’s yang.

And save the drama for the stage!

“When acting is free, it seems uncomplicated. When acting is blocked it all seems very complicated.” — Declan Donnellan